New York Police Use of Stop-and-Frisk Drops

Plummet in Disputed Tactic Tracks Overall Decrease in Crime

The number of stop-and-frisk reports filed by New York City police fell 51% in the first three months of this year compared with the same period last year.

The decline comes as the crime-fighting tactic undergoes a high-profile challenge in federal court and emerges as a central issue in this year's race to succeed Mayor
Michael Bloomberg
.

From Jan. 1 through March 31, officers conducted 99,788 stop and frisks, compared with 203,500 during the same period in 2012, according to New York Police Department data. It wasn't clear how many of those encounters resulted in a subject being frisked after a stop.

ENLARGE

"Staffing and other factors, including training, have had a bearing on the number of stops," said chief NYPD spokesman Paul Browne. "But the bottom line is that the total number of stops in any given quarter reflects what the police officers on duty during that quarter observed."

Speaking generally, he said the number of police assigned to Operation Impact, a program that assigns rookie officers to patrol high-crime areas, tends to have the greatest impact on the number of stops. He said those officers are "in a better position to observe suspicious activity."

The figures were released Friday to the New York City Council and reviewed Monday by The Wall Street Journal.

They also showed that the reduced stops in the first quarter of 2013 resulted in a 43% decline in weapons recovered compared with the same period in 2012.

Overall crime is also down 2.7% this year through April 28 with murders leading the way with a 30% decline compared with the same period last year, police data show.

The stop-and-frisk tactic, under which officers stop, question and sometimes frisk people they reasonably suspect of having committed a crime, has been the subject of a civil trial in federal court in Manhattan.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, which brought the lawsuit on behalf of several individuals, claims the policy violates the Constitution's Fourth Amendment, which prohibits illegal searches and seizures, as well as the equal-protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which is often invoked to fight laws seen as racially discriminatory.

The center seeks a federal monitor to ensure the department complies with any court-ordered changes to the policy.

Stop-and-frisk has absorbed criticism because since 2002 when more than 85% of those stopped were either black or Latino, and nearly 90% of those stopped were released without being charged.

Attorneys representing the city and the police have argued that the tactic focuses on areas where crime is highest and that the percentage of minorities stopped is consistent with the percentage of crime suspects who are minorities. The NYPD and Mr. Bloomberg have cited the policy as an important factor in the drop in crime city-wide.

Data from the first quarter of this year has been consistent with previous years: Black and Hispanic people accounted for the vast majority of stops.

African-Americans were the subjects of 56% of the stops and were 65% of the violent-crime suspects identified by alleged victims, according to the NYPD data. Hispanics were the subjects of 30% of stops and were 27% of violent-crime suspects.

Donna Lieberman
,
executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, a group that has sued the city in the past over stop-and-frisk, said the new data was "encouraging" and was a challenge to the Bloomberg administration's assertion that wide-ranging use of the practice helps reduce crime.

"I think it's significant to note that while stop and frisk numbers have gone down, crime has also gone down," Ms. Lieberman said. "It's important that we ensure that we get to a point as a city where the prospect of being stopped for doing nothing wrong is an aberration not the expected course of events in your life if you are a person of color."

Stop-and-frisk has taken center-stage in this year's race for mayor, with most Democratic candidates saying the policy needs to be changed.

On Monday, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, rivals for the Democratic mayoral nomination, engaged in a sharp exchange regarding a web advertisement Mr. de Blasio released Friday that linked Ms. Quinn to comments made last week by NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly on ABC's "Nightline."

Mr. Kelly said African-Americans represented 53% of those stopped by the NYPD. "So really, African-Americans are being under stopped in relation to the percentage of people being described as being the perpetrators of violent crime," Mr. Kelly said. "The stark reality is that crime happens in communities of color. They are being disproportionately victimized."

Mr. de Blasio's new ad quotes Mr. Kelly saying African-Americans were "under stopped" and reminds voters that Ms. Quinn has often said she would retain him as commissioner if she became mayor. "We need a fresh start," the ad states.

Asked about the ad, Mr. Browne, the police spokesman, said, "Regrettably, race baiting hasn't lost its appeal for a pol behind in the polls."

Ms. Quinn said Monday the ad "showed a certain level of desperation." When asked if she agreed with Mr. Kelly that African-Americans were "under stopped," she declined to comment.

Mr. de Blasio criticized Ms. Quinn for declining to answer the question. "We can't depend on Speaker Quinn to reform stop and frisk if she won't acknowledge there is a problem," he said.

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